Ever since the tournament, Oorai's sensha-do team had been receiving a fair amount of celebrity status around the school. With good reason, of course, considering that they had essentially saved the school from being closed down. Miho, however, was wishing that people would forget about it already. Why couldn't everyone just go back to how things were? She hated it. The attention, that is – she liked the people, just... the attention felt unwarranted.
It seemed anymore that the only place she could escape the prying eyes of schoolmates was at the maintenance shed. Though, oddly, that part didn't bug her. She enjoyed spending time with her team, and something about being with their vehicles was calming. Had anyone told her that's how things would end up a year ago, she would have thought them out of their minds. For a while, in her heart, she'd held a grudge against the student council – but now she was thankful for what they'd done.
That didn't mean that she was happy with them for how they had gone about doing what they did, but she did understand why they'd done it. That helped in the long run. She could respect them for wanting to save their beloved school. After all, she was one of the students that had grown attached to it – how could she hold it against them for doing what they'd done? A smile crossed her lips as she looked out the open shed doors and saw the three of them "cleaning" the Hetzer. Somehow it had devolved into a water fight with the hose and a couple of buckets – and per the norm, Momo was the only one that seemed unhappy about it.
Chuckling lightly, she looked toward the other teams. Duck, Rabbit, Mallard, and Anteater were getting ready to head out for a little two-on-two practice match. They were the half of the team that needed the most practice, as had become blatantly apparent in the last couple of matches in the tournament. Loyal to a fault they might have been, but they still were behind Anglerfish, Turtle, Hippo, and Leopon.
She had to admit that the last of those had truly surprised her in the finals. Then again, the Tiger (P) was the heaviest tank they had, and only the Automotive Club had gotten the temperamental beast to continue moving. Unfortunately, even after eight months of trial and error, they still hadn't worked the kinks out of it. Despite that, they had managed to make it less temperamental overall. It still had its problems, but with the crew it had, it did just fine.
"Miho..." Hana's soft voice broke into Miho's thoughts, and she turned to look at her elegant friend. "...Do you have any idea where Saori is?"
Looking down where Hana and Yukari sat on front of their Pz IV H, she shook her head slightly. "No idea, Hana. I haven't been all that concerned, but maybe I should be. She's never been this late before." She glanced down inside the tank, grinning as she saw the sleeping form of Mako. Then she looked back down to her friends from the turret. "Saori is late, and Mako was here before any of us. The whole day is upside down, isn't it?"
Yukari touched a finger to her chin, leaning back a little and resting the back of her head against the tank's barrel. Thinking for a moment, she then spoke. "Could she be sick? Maybe something at lunch didn't agree with her?"
"I don't think so..." Hana said as she thought about it, "...she seemed fine. In fact, she said she was going to meet us here."
"Was she going to be doing something first? Did she say?" Miho asked.
"She mentioned something this morning about getting information about the list of teams for the upcoming tournament." It was Mako's voice, and Miho looked down inside. "Maybe that's where she is." And with that, she abruptly drifted off again.
Standing upright once more, Miho climbed out of the turret and sat on it, next to the base of the barrel. "If that's true, I wonder what's taking her so long."
As if on cue, a shout came from outside. "Miho!" And of course, it was Saori. "Miiiihooooo!" She called out, running inside the shed, flailing about with a few pieces of paper in her hands. "Have you heard?! Have you?!"
"Heard what?" Miho blinked at her friend's excitement, "What is it?"
Saori was practically giddy, bouncing on her feet and spinning around as she clutched the papers to her chest suddenly, "It must be fate!"
"What must be fate, Saori?" Hana asked gently, tilting her head slightly with a puzzled look.
"You act like you just got a boyfriend." Yukari smiled, "Did you?"
That made Saori pause, then pout, and hang her head. "No..." Then just as quick she was bright again, "But I do have some amazing news!" She beamed.
"Well... what is it?" Miho prodded.
Saori practically squealed. "There's going to be a boy's team this year!"
That got everyone's attention in the vicinity, and soon enough Hippo, Turtle, and Leopon teams made their way over, curious to see what all this fuss was about – and if they'd heard right. When they all gathered around, Saori felt giddy at having the gossip for them all.
"A boy's team?" Erwin asked, raising a brow and crossing her arms, "Are you sure you heard right?"
"Yeah... what boy would compete in sensha-do? It's a feminine sport." Anzu added.
Saori grinned. "I don't have a list of names or anything, but the school is Corsair High."
"Corsair High... Corsair High..." Momo said softly, thinking about where she might have heard of it, then looked to Anzu. "Isn't that the international boy's-only school? The one on the old aircraft carrier?"
Anzu, glanced upward, tapping her chin. "I think so, now that you mention it." She looked to Momo, "They're the ones that won the first tier of the Aerial Combat Tournament last year. If I remember right, one of their pilots was injured during the system's shutdown sequence. Can't dogfight anymore."
"Actually, that is the one name that I've got." Saori beamed, "And you're right. His name is Bastian Falkenrath. I did a little snooping, and it turns out that he's been a flight instructor since then, teaching the new members of the team. Team Corsair is entering both the first and second combat tiers this year, since they bought a squadron's worth of World War Two era aircraft." She waved her hand a bit then, "But that's not the important part. The important part is that Bastian is going to be the Captain of the Corsair High sensha-do team."
"A pilot as their team captain?" Hana asked curiously, then looked to Miho. "What do you make of that?"
"I... don't really know." Miho shrugged, "I don't know much about dogfighting, but from what I know, they're usually alone in their planes. If he's the team Captain, then he's probably going to be a tank commander as well. He might be able to Captain the team if he's any good at tactics, but... using a tank is going to be new to him. Even if he's good at tactics, trying to manage his own tank might distract him."
"So... should we be worried then?" Nakajima asked curiously, glancing over toward the Tiger (P). "Do we have any idea what they'll be using to compete?"
"I don't think we have to worry." Saori grinned mischievously. "They don't even have any tanks yet."
"They don't have any tanks yet?" Yukari blinked, "How can they even be a sensha-do team?"
"Probationary period." Miho answered, "Remember how we started? We made the announcement before we had tanks or a full team too. So long as they can get the minimum requirements met in time, they'll be able to compete in the tournament."
"I wonder who their sensha-do instructor will be." Erwin said offhand, getting looks from everyone, "Think about it. It's an all-boys school. Are there any male sensha-do instructors? Would they allow a woman to teach at an all-boys school if there aren't?"
Those questions were ones that nobody had any answers for.
A few more moments of chatter amongst the girls, and then the teams went back to what they had been doing – though remained curious about the boys' team. As the four Oorai tanks that were intent upon practicing began to move out, Miho let her mind drift. She could feel a challenge coming, and while she would never admit it... she was excited.